Also, I’ve been busy doing lots of behind the scenes stuff over at my book blog, I hate listening to a synth voice for long periods of time and as I read so may blogs it can be a bit much, however, not happy with some of the audio programs out there I settled for a cheap, basic one. My iPhone or iBone as we call it, I put it flat on the table so it appears as a black screen to everyone and just record my voice reading everything I’ve written for that particular blog post. So for those, like me, who get bored of a computer voice, you’ll have a bubbly, loopy, author reading her own words. It’s a very simple process and it means I can do ‘one takes’ and upload straight to youtube via my iBone. I hope to bring that feature to this blog as well, it seems to have taken a back burner to my book blog but I still love posting on both. I’ve been working hard on a post all about covers, art, options, etc.. which is now up on RavenReads so please go and check it out.

I’ve also decided to shift my tumblr from just a instagraming dumping ground to promoting feeds from both blogs, I didn’t want to delete the 400+ posts already on it so I’ve just adding posts from here and my book blog. It’s been a busy week!

Can you imagine working for a company that only has
a little more than 635 employees, but, has the following employee statistics:

29 have been accused of spouse abuse,
7 have been arrested for fraud,
9 have been accused of writing bad cheques,
17 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses,
3 have done time for assault,
71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit,
14 have been arrested on drug-related charges,
8 have been arrested for shoplifting,
21 are currently defendants in lawsuits,
84 have been arrested for drink driving in the last year,
And collectively, this year alone, they have cost the British tax payer £92,993,748 in expenses!!!

Which organisation is this????

It’s the 635 members of the House of Commons.

The same group that cranks out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

AND

My local MP, from The House of Commons replied in small print snail mail form, to an email via RNIB campaign service that I sent regarding changes to DLA/PIP. Pointless, much?
And the only reason we keep them going is to stop the BNP from taking over? To borrow a quote. Tactical defending is a poor system. Indeed.

All stacked in a row, in their pretty individual cases sat Ted Dekker’s Lost Books of History.
£24.69 Chosen
£14.15 Infidel
£12.34 Renegade
£21.60 Chaos
£14.19 Lunatic
£14.16 Elyon

If I were to buy the series individualy like that it would cost me £101.13.
So naturally I bundled them into my wishlist and sighed heavily. But guess what was hiding underneath, tucked away at the bottom of the page?

Ted Dekker’s The Lost Books Complete Series for £20.11. Yeah I pretty much did a triple, let alone a double take too. Ok, so you don’t get all the individual pretty cases to look good on the shelf, but lets face it. If you’re relying on audio books, what are the chances of you seeing too admire your colourful collection?

It really does pay to look around. Ebay is great for good condition used and sometimes new Terry Pratchette DiscWorld audio books. Amazon is great for picking up deals on contemporary audio books too. I’m not really keen on Audible having to pay a member fee for downloads that could get currupted and lost, it’s good for convenience but I like to have piece of mind with a cd in my hand that I can put on the computer & phone when I want.

Talking of Audible – they currently have. Mammoth May sale 40% off for members till Wednesday 16th May grab a bargain!

Not such a smart move, eh?

We managed to dodge the showers and have a free run up at the local forest. I couldn’t play along in the ultimate mud puddling game with Ellie because I still have no replaced my wellies, which I really, really need to do before we go on holiday. But despite missing out on all the mud fun, it was a great to be outdoors, blew the cobwebs out for sure. I love listening to the rain and although I’m a lousy travel companion, beither either sick, or about to be sick, the rain took my mind of the bouncy country lanes and stop start of dad’s driving. It stopped by the time we arrived so we donned are raincoats and wellies and headed out. The car park was surprisingly busy despite the fact we only saw 2 families with 5 dogs between them. Ellie as usual wanted to play chase with every dog but they weren’t in the mood, I found a sort of wooden climbing frame thing, so I decided to try and climb it and then Ellie decided I shouldn’t be up there alone so bounded on up, didn’t quite make it and did a sort of did a doggy rolly polly, she wasn’t hurt thank goodness and tried again for a second time and made it, and sat posing for a snap shot from mum’s phone.

When we came home mum and I decided to make a sponge cake while dad was bubble bathing and blow drying Ellie, depending on whether there is any cooking chocolate left by the time we’ve finished mixing up the sponge we may or may not having melted chocolate for icing. Using my favourite colour combination and going for Lemon instead of Almond for a change.

Last night I got very excited because Audible not only had a sale on, but they had the 3 books I’ve been missing from a series I started reading a few years ago and had to read 1,2 and 6, but my excitement soon turned into annoyance with errors all over the checkout! I emailed them and had a nice response waiting for me when I got home from my walk, saying they’d had several reports of these errors and that it had been fixed! So I have now used 3 credits that were building up  and bought/downloaded Ted Dekker’s Lost Books of History Chronicles, book 3, (Renegade) book 4, (Chaos) and book 5, (Lunatic) whoohooo!!! cannot wait to listen to them tonight, or this afternoon when I finish up this blog.

You will need:
1 x large ziplock bag
1 x small ziplock bag
1/2 cup of milk (any you choice)
6 tspn ofrock salt
1 tbsn of sugar
1/4 tspn flavouring I used Peppermint.

Fill the large ziplock bag halfway with ice and salt, give it a good shake. Put the milk, sugar and flavouring into the smaller bag, get as much air out before you seal and shake. Puy the sealed small bag into the bigger bag and surround with ice, add more if you need too then get as much air out as you can and seal. Shake for 5 minutes and tada! Home made ice cream for one. I recommend having gloves and a towel at hand for the shaking!

Spoon out into a bowl and avoid touching the sides of the bags which eill be covered in salt.

Yum.

So that was our lazy sunday, in the garden reading and playing followed by home made lasagna and ice cream.

This week has been a bit of a blur really, I’ve had a bug of some kind and been sleeping a lot, dosed up and generally feeling a bit blah and not up to posting or being online much. However, it has given me chance to catch up on some much wanted dvd listening! I’ve been wanting to read Lord of The Rings for years but I knew I’d never be able to read the paperbacks and I hadn’t researched the audio book / kindle versions because I just figured, they’d either not be there or they would be expensive. I thought the films might be the easy way for me to break myself in. I found a bargain on Amazon for the extended dvd boxset for the trilogy and snapped it up.

So curled up in bed and super excited, I started listening to the Fellowship of The Ring. I loved it, that’s an understatement. I think it’s about a 3 1/2 hour movie and I watched it twice that day/night because I HAVE to listen to all the commentaries, but I did pace myself… so far I’ve only listened to the cast commentary.
Also, during last months reads I read a couple of the Merlin books that accompany the BBC series that started in 2008, which I never got around to seeing and now I can’t because I don’t have a tv. But I loved the books and I plan on reading the series for teens. Amazon has the entire series so far in box sets so I ordered the first one to see if it’s as good as the books, and it’s so much better! – the books are fun the the tv show just brings it to life so much more. I love, love, love Richard Wilson playing Gaius, genius and that wig! wow. I was a big fan of the 1998 Merlin film with Sam Neil, Miranda Richardson and Helena Bonham Carter and this, although nothing like it because they change the plot and character relationships a lot, had the same awesome vibe! I’ve ordered the second series and can’t wait for it to come. I’ve already watched all 13 episodes 2/3 times plus all the commentaries and special features. Anthony Head playing King Uther reminds me a lot of Rutger Hauer/ King Vortigern I think possibly because they have the same big head shape and low voice.I got a bit confused in an episode where Knight Valient came in and reminded me of Mordred from the 1998 film but I’m pretty sure it’s not the same actor and OMGOSH! I love Asa Butterfield as Mordred, he’s just great in anything he’s in, but just a great role for a great actor.

On the crafting front, I can’t remember if I told you about getting my hands on a Cuttlebug die cut and embossing machine, but it arrived and I’ve been playing around with it, a friend kindly sent me some universal embossing folders of butterflies and borders and I love them. The pictures probably would have looked better if I’d scanned them in but here are some phone pictures of what I’ve done so far.

My gift card giveaway closes tonight at midnight and I’ll announce the winners on Monday on my youtube channel. Good luck.

I’m starting to feel a bit funny again now so off the computer and back into bed with some more pills, fun. Have a nice weekend.
P.S I’m geeing out to Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary CD on my phone thanks to remote disc! I love apple mac so much, haha.

I know I haven’t been on here as much as I was at the beginning of my year but still.. I can’t believe that BlindStyle is nearly a year old and I’ve come so far from where I started. I have no plans on abandoning this, it’s just I feel I’ve got to a place where I’ve kind of explained everything I know at the moment and the gadgets I have, all I can offer now is just my daily adventures and frustrations, would you still be interested in that? I’ll write them up anyway, even for my own amusements twenty years down the line .

I’m hosting a 3 way giveaway to say thank you for all my followers and subscribers to my blog and youtube. It’s ebook/audio book related with gift cards from ebooks.com and amazon.co.uk/.com if you’d like a chance to win all you have to do is be subscribed to my youtube channel and leave a comment with your name or user name and the country you’re from with a general comment. I’ll close the giveaway on the 5th May 2012 at Midnight and pick 3 random winners. Good Luck!! and THANK YOU

The questions I ask myself when thinking of buying an Audio Book.

1. Who is reading it?
2. Can I stand to listen to that voice/accent for several hours?
3. How much is it?
4. CD or download?

It may seem trivial to some, just who reads the books, but to me the narrator is just as important as the cover art is for other people. I know people who prefer the American covers on books and go out of their way to order from Amazon.com just to get a specific cover. I don’t think it’s so much of a stretch to prefer a British English accent over an American English or Australian/New Zealand English accent. I know the money is in America so that is where the majority of the recording is done and that’s great if you are American, used to that accent and like it. But if you can’t stand some of the dialects you’re pretty much stuck! I’ve only found a handful of American narrators I can actually tolerate without getting a migraine. The American narraters I’ve come across and  enjoy so far, Lorelei King, Dana Delany, Khristine Hvam, Rob Lamont and Kevin King.
Audio Books are probably one of the most expensive formats to buy, because more people are involved with voice talent and securing the rights to record the book in the first place, the price of Audio Books, CD’s in particular are often between £15-60+ rather than the usual £5 Kindle book and £11 occasional hard back copy. It’s incredibly unfair but it’s a fact, which is another reason I hesitate when I know there is an ebook alternative.
When you’re paying that much money out on hours of listening, you want to make sure you can stand the voice that’s reading it to you. I always preview the narration before buying an Audio Book and even then sometimes it doesn’t work out. I wish it was as simple as buying British English narration from Amazon.co.uk and if I want American or Australian I just go to Amazon.com and the Australian alternative.

I have a trust issue with digital downloads, over the years we’ve had multiple hard drive crashes, corruption and lost so much stuff. I prefer buying CDs so I always have a hard copy, then if I want them on my iPhone or on the computer it’s an easy process, and it doesn’t involve me losing a digital copy and forgetting to make a hard copy it’s done for me. I can understand why Audio Book CDs are slightly more expensive than ebooks and paperbacks because you’re getting a physical thing, but when digital downloads are the same price I find it ridiculous and  just plain greedy.

I like to compare prices over the formats to get the best deal. I always check Amazon, Audible, Kobo, Ebooks and iTunes for every book I buy whether it’s Audio Book or an  ebook. Here’s how it typically works out. As you can see the ebooks are always cheaper but the synth voice is just as bad.

Above is the latest book I’ve been researching and thinking of getting, it’s a new author to me recommended by a blindie friend, as you can see I will have to use 2 months worth of credits to buy it in separate downloads from Audible, or £40 in one pop, not going to happen. Whereas.. I could get the same book, same narrator, both unabridged on iTunes as one download for 1/10 of the price. They are both digital, you don’t get a cd case with artwork so why the heck is Audible charging so much for the same book that’s provided to both Audible and iTunes by the parent company Amazon?
Another thing that bugs me when it comes to Audio Books is that even short books are more expensive than their paperback and ebook counterparts. Here’s a couple of examples of my favourite short books, around 3 – 4 hours long.
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo Audio CD Amazon £11.31
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo Audible download £8.99
The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips by Michael Morpurgo Kindle ebook £2.99
Midget by Tim Bowler Audible download £12.29
Midget by Tim Bowler iTunes download £9.95
Now if you’re like me and a lot of other blindies out there, you are used to listening to things speeded up a little so often, it doesn’t take us 3 hours or 28 hours to read/listen to the standard running time. Another reason why I think Audio Books are over priced.

For a lot of us Audio Books are the only way to read or the preferred way, I don’t think we should be penalised for a basic right. I’m so disheartened with the voice talent provided. that I’m going through my 300+ ebook library and recording myself reading them using computer software, it’s going to take forever but if that’s what I have to do, while I still can, to be able to listen to a book then I’ll do it, but it shouldn’t be up to me. It should be up to the companies to provide decent voice talent in understandable and preferred accents. I have a Spanish friend who only buys Audio Books in English because the Spanish narrations are patronising and unbearable. This is just not good enough. There’s a gaping hole in the market for British English narraters, please, sighties, please fill the gap!

Now some of you may be saying, wait, doesn’t the RNIB provide a free talking book service with the Dairy Reader and Daisy Books? yes they do and I’ve been subscribing to it for almost 3 years but in that time I’ve found less than 10 books I actually liked and could listen to, My last batch was of some Margaret Mahy books I’ve been after for ages, they aren’t on Kindle and I had to give up within half an hour with all of them because they were recorded by the New Zealand branch of the RNIB. We have enough frustration in our daily lives without having to give up on books because we can’t bare the accent. Besides, what on earth do New Zealanders do to the English vowels?
In general I’ve found the talking service very limited, new books take ages to come out, and it’s mostly geared towards the very young or the elderly with genre’s of books and I’m constantly getting irritated with the catalogue not even having heard of the authors I want to read from.

Love Audio Books.
I love Audio Books because it still means that I can enjoy my favourite hobby and continue to learn things every day. They free you up, you can do all sorts of things around the house, even walk the dog while listening to the latest series. The flexibility of downloads and not limited to one place to get them from. The feeling like you can get the cover artwork with the cd versions.

Hate Audio Books.
Over priced, not enough acceptable narraters in preferred language, have to use a wifi connection to download books when I’d happily use up my contracted 3g connection data usage,

How do you read your books? If you read Audio Books who are your favourite authors and narraters?